EXCLUSIVE: Fresh from earning two nominations for the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, The Cycle of Love is cycling back into theaters.
The romantic documentary directed by Oscar winner Orlando von Einsiedel and executive produced by Priyanka Chopra Jonas will play for one-day only on November 1, which the distributor is calling a special “date night” screening event. It’s booked in locations nationwide from New York to Los Angeles, and even further west to Hawaii. The film, which recounts the extraordinary love story of PK — an “untouchable” young Indian artist — and Lotta, “a Swedish adventurer in search of magic, whose meeting was written in the stars from [PK’s] birth,” becomes available on TVOD starting November 2, on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube.
The Cyle of Love won the Artemis Rising Foundation Award for Social Impact at the Hamptons International Film Festival in New York and audience awards at the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia and the Indie Meme Film Festival in Austin, TX. At the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, it’s nominated for Best Director, recognizing von Einsiedel, and Best Cinematography, recognizing DoP Franklin Dow.
“In 1977, PK, a 23-year-old Delhi street artist from a poor, ‘untouchable’ family, picked up a handful of paintbrushes and a second-hand bicycle and set off across 6000 miles and nearly a dozen countries,” notes a synopsis. “His mission: to find Lotta, the woman who had captured his heart on a visit to India.
“PK knew their meeting was fate. When he was still a baby, an astrologer left his parents with a prophecy: ‘You will marry a girl who is not from the village, not even from this country, she will be musical, own a jungle and be born under the sign of the ox.’ Lotta was born in May and she played the recorder and piano. When PK asked her if she owned a jungle, she replied, ‘not a jungle, but a forest.’ He knew this was his destiny. Charmed by his smile, creativity and gentleness, Lotta accepted his offer to show her around India and, over her two-month visit, they fell hopelessly in love, despite caste, nationality, and everything else.”
Von Einsiedel won his Academy Award for The White Helmets (2016) and earned an Academy Award nomination for Virunga (2014). His additional directing credits include The Lost Children (2024), co-directed by Jorge Duran and Lali Houghton; the documentary series Heart of Invictus (2023), and the short film Lost and Found (2019).
In a recent interview with Deadline, von Einsiedel told us about the origins of The Cycle of Love.
“I was in Sweden and I was giving a talk at an event and two young people, very smiley young people, came up to me and handed me a book and said, ‘This is a book about our parents’ story and we know your work a little bit. And if you like this story and are interested, would you consider making a film about it?’” the filmmaker recalled. “When somebody approaches you cold and says, ‘This is a great story,’ it sadly isn’t always a great story. So, I didn’t have the highest hopes in the world, but I read the book a number of weeks later and immediately knew I’d been an idiot for not being more enthusiastic. And the story blew my mind and it’s about magic and destiny and love and adventure and the kindness of strangers. And I immediately got back in touch and said, ‘Hello, do you remember me?’ And luckily, they did remember me.”
The film includes extensive dramatizations immersing viewers in this almost unimaginable story. Von Einsiedel cast actor Chirag Lobo as young PK, and actress Mina Dale as young Lotta.
“I learned very quickly there wasn’t much archive footage… PK unfortunately didn’t have a documentary crew following him in 1977,” von Einsiedel said. “Normally, that [cuts] a documentary off at its knees. And I found that very scary, but it was kind of freeing and wonderful in a way to try and problem-solve how to overcome this.”
The film becomes a road movie, with the director casting people he met in the course of filming — non-professional actors — to take part in it. Von Einsiedel says his approach was inspired by several acclaimed directors.
“I suppose I’ve borrowed enormously from amazing filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami, Chloé Zhao, Jonas Poher Rasmussen and the Ross Brothers, all these brilliant people who blended documentary and scripted,” he said. “I’ve tried to stand on their shoulders and try something different.”
PK’s story of perseverance — receiving a sign about his future and then undertaking a journey to make that vision a reality — has touched audiences around the world.
“We don’t all have destiny written for us or given a prophecy as children, but we all have hopes and dreams and ambitions,” von Einsiedel observed. “But to make those happen, you have to work at them. And I think that’s a really inspiring message at the heart of this film. Here’s a man who had a very difficult life and he decided he was going to change it and took an enormous risk. And we might not be able to cycle 6,000 miles to change our lives, but we can all do something to achieve our dreams.”
He added, “There’s a line PK says as well: ‘We can choose which story to believe about ourselves.’ I think that’s such a powerful line because PK had been told all his life that he was polluted, he was dirty, he was nothing, and he chose not to believe any of that and achieved extraordinary things because of that.”
The Cycle of Love is a Grain Media and Kalabati Pictures production, in Association with BD4, Tudip Entertainment and AMPL, Artemis Rising Foundation, Grace Labs, Waldesfriede Films and Purple Pebble Pictures. The film is produced by Harri Grace, Chloe Leland, Emelie Mahanandia von Schedvin, and Karl Mahanandia von Schedvin.
Executive producers are Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Anne Carey, Adriana Banta, Jorge Villon, Abhijeet Chhabra, Dan Silver, Ryan Harrington, Geralyn Dreyfous, Emily Goldner, Chris Silvestri, Mark Roden, Melony and Adam Lewis, Michael Humphries, Regina K. Scully, Lekha Singh, Cristina Ljungberg, Victoria Steventon, The Reilly Family, Danielle Turkov, and Amy Shepherd.